The Dalai Lama loves Bush

The Dalai Lama, the beloved leader of the beleaguered Tibetans, is a
man who often speaks in sweeping terms. As would be expected of a
spiritual man.

So it is not surprising that while on a weeks-long teaching tour of
the United States, the 73-year-old Buddhist leader recently waxed
exuberant about how much it meant to him to have President Bush's
support from the moment the two first met in the White House on May
23, 2001. He told CNN's Carol Costello:
I love him. Because since my first visit, I noted he as a human being
[was] very nice, very open, very straightforward. My first call at
that time, within a few seconds, we became very close friends. So I love him.

The Dalai Lama suggested that Bush "lacked understanding of reality"
in launching a war in Iraq where it turned out there were no weapons
of mass destruction. And he said Americans in general need to learn
"the reality of limitation," because raw consumerism can led to "too
much stress, too much competition and too much desire."

But the Tibetan leader, born in China but exiled to India after the
failed Tibetan uprising in 1959, also said he is happy that China is
the host of this summer's Olympic Games and has no quarrel with world
leaders who plan to attend. In fact, the Dalai Lama himself has asked
to attend, but has so far been turned down by the Beijing government.